Two people and five teams have received awards from the Defense Standardization Program Office for outstanding achievements in 2015.
The awards were presented March 16 during a ceremony at the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes.
Since 1987, DSPO has recognized people and organizations that have significantly improved quality, reliability, readiness, cost reduction and interoperability through standardization. The program promotes interoperability and assists in reducing total ownership cost and sustaining readiness, DSPO officials said.
Standards are the common use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or processes and production methods, and management systems practices, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
A basic standard, for example, has a broad effect in a particular field, such as a standard for metal that affects a range of products from cars to screws. Test and measurement standards define methods to be used to assess the performance or other characteristics of a product or process.
“Standardization is about finding common solutions for common problems and sharing them across programs. It can be a great challenge,” Gregory E. Saunders, director for the Defense Standardization Program, said in a statement.
Distinguished Achievement Award
Taking top honors and receiving the Distinguished Achievement Award this year was Dr. Terrence D'Onofrio from the Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Maryland. He invented a contact-based permeation research fixture and methodology that closed a critical gap in protection testing.
The low-volatility agent permeation system is the first contact-based method that accurately quantifies the permeation hazard of low-volatility contaminants, such as the chemical nerve agent VX, through clothing and protective equipment.
Following are the other DSP award recipients for 2015:
New Performance Specification
John Bonitatibus of the Defense Logistics Agency developed a new performance specification -- MIL-PRF-32535 -- and 10 specification sheets covering extended-range surface-mount ceramic chip capacitors for high- and standard-reliability applications.
The new specification could preclude 50 non-standard parts each year for the next five years, resulting in cost savings of $1.4 million annually, according to the award citation.
Noise Limit Standard
An Army-led team with members from the Navy and Air Force revised MIL-STD-1474 for noise limits. A study showed that the Department of Veterans Affairs is spending $1 billion a year on hearing-loss claims. The defense secretary’s office asked each service find ways to reduce noise from military equipment and the team updated the military standard for noise limits.
Team members include Bruce Amrein, John Mallino, Charles Jokel, Richard McKinley and Kurt Yankaskas.
Framework for Training Simulators
A Navy team from the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division developed a standardized architecture and framework for producing training simulators that replicate the functionality of U.S. aviation, submarine and surface-ship tactical systems.
The framework can be used to produce photo-realistic weapon systems in a simulated 3D™ environment. The new Multipurpose Reconfigurable Training System 3D represents a significant advance in low-cost, high-fidelity tactical equipment and sets the standard for future trainers.
Team members include David Thomas, Darrell Conley, Bill Zeller, Khoa Vu and Christopher Freet.
Converter for Precision Radar
A Navy team from Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center-Pacific determined that a standard 400-Hertz converter produced for the Army could replace a problematic 400-hertz (cycles per second) converter used in the Navy’s AN/FPN-63 (V) precision-approach radar, or PAR.
PAR is the Navy and Marine Corps’ fixed-base primary approach aid used in poor visibility to radar-guide an aircraft on final approach. After testing, the Navy made refinements to handle overload conditions and the 400-hertz converter’s electronics and programming are identical in Army, Navy and Marine Corps versions.
Team members include Richard Gunn, Stephen Cox, Terry Stockton and Erin Yakes.
Aircraft Crew Breathing System
An Air Force team developed a standard for aircraft crew breathing systems using on-board oxygen generating systems, or OBOGS, in response to hypoxia-like incidents that occurred because OBOGS requirements were not consistently applied.
The Air Force, in conjunction with the Navy and aerospace industry, developed MIL-STD-3050, which covers the design, integration, certification and sustainment requirements for aircraft crew breathing systems using an OBOGS. The standard now will prevent inconsistent application of life-support-system-critical items that include an OBOGS.
Team members include George Miller, Jose Ubinas and Madeleine Istvan.
Open-Standards Collaboration Service
A team from the Defense Information Systems Agency replaced the legacy managed service Defense Connect Online with a collaboration service that features modular open-standards architecture. The Defense Collaboration Services system is based on mature open-source web-conferencing software and XMPP-based chat software to reduce costs.
Team members include Deepak Seth, Bruce Watkins, Jay Chung, Brian Fuchs and Steven Crum.
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